The Saint: Ups and downs of highway life

That was the case again this week when a timber truck was involved in a collision on the highway at Mt Victoria before overturning, spilling logs and catching fire.

Amazingly no one was seriously hurt but the highway - the main traffic route between the Central West and the East Coast - was closed all day forcing all traffic through Lithgow and onto the Bells Line.

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The predictable outcome saw traffic snarls extending back to Bilpin and Marrangaroo at times.

It's a situation that's fraught with both personal and economic risk, as has occurred with disturbing frequency over the years - a situation that could have been addressed years ago had the government stopped chasing its tail on the metropolitan network hamster wheel and paid something more than lip service to a proper Bells Line upgrade, even if just eliminating the choke points.

FOOTNOTE: Before some pedant points out our érror' there is a second alternative route to Sydney. A nice drive in the country out to Oberon down the Abercrombie to Goulburn then do battle with B Doubles back up the Hume. Nah! Stick with the traffic snarls on The Bells Line; you'll get there eventually.

DON'T get so wrapped up in the weekend footy finals that you forget daylight saving returns this weekend. Just move your clocks FORWARD an hour at bedtime on Saturday and you'll be in the Summer time zone. Daylight Saving ends on April 7 next year.

SO the Welsh Wailer, Tom Jones, is to entice us with another tour down under and it's not unusual to see excitement building in the green, green grass of Oz. The column first enjoyed a Tom Jones performance years back at the Silver Spade Room (how flash is that?) at the old Chevron Hotel at The Cross. It was our first experience of frilly undies flying through the air towards the stage. Bit of a waste really; most of them probably wouldn't fit him . And a local connection worth repeating. A few years back Lithgow classic car enthusiast George Redding (Sr) bought a Rolls Royce Corniche that someone had brought out from England. In the glove box was a London car park receipt signed by Tom Jones. Later inquiries confirmed that, yep, it was THAT Tom Jones.

THERE'S so much fake news flying about in the sadly nasty Voice debate you would be forgiven to think you'd wanted into a Donald Trump rally. Stay polite and on fact folks.